– From “Personal Privilege”, by Todd Essary –

I was watching an episode of “The West Wing” a couple of days ago.  Martin Sheen’s character, President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet, was a few weeks away from delivering his State of the Union address.  He had just recently been censured by Congress, as well. So he was highly motivated to use his upcoming speech as a vehicle for improving his standing in the eyes of the American people.

During a dinner with doctor friends of his wife, it happened that President Bartlet became informed of what was an actual possibility for curing cancer, perhaps within the next decade.  At that point, although it was already fairly late in the evening, Bartlet called-in his Staff and announced his plan to weave the promise of curing cancer into his State of The Union speech (a la JFK’s promise to “put a man on the moon”).  And Bartlet told his Staff to start working-out the details — writing the words, securing the documentation, etc. — right away.

Ultimately, everyone involved — all the Staff, as well as Bartlet, himself — knew this promise to cure cancer neither could, nor would, find its way into the President’s address.  But none of the Staff expressed any resistance to the President’s initiative.  And they all went to work, late that night, on something they knew was ultimately not going to happen.

Not only did they go to work, but they went to work in earnest — as if it actually were going to happen.  In particular, Rob Lowe’s character, Sam Seaborn (Deputy Communications Director, and one of Bartlet’s two world-class speechwriters), applied all of his skill and thoughtfulness, completely, over the next few hours.  The result of Seaborn’s effort was the composition of a stunningly eloquent and powerful piece about the promise of curing cancer.

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